Over the last couple weeks, MTV Multiplayer has been asking top people at Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony about what they think about game demos for games able for download via Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and PlayStation Network.

In short, here are the standings.

Microsoft – yes, demos are a must
Nintendo — no, demos are not required
Sony – sometimes demos are good, sometimes bad.

Click Here, for the full interviews.

Damn Nintendo are there conservative ways.

This may seem really obvious, but a demo is only as good as the amount of time a company wants to put into it. I downloaded Sega Superstar Tennis the other day, and was totally disappointed, because the demo let me play 1 match of tennis, whereas the character controller were very poor and also let me play a mini game which wasn't so bad.

Now that I've played that demo there's no way I'll go buy the game, but I do wonder if I rented the full version, if things would be a bit more tight and character responsive. Some people though would play a crappy demo and not give a game another thought.

Since most demos on PSN are generally 500mb+ (and can be over a gig), I'm not sure what kind of demos you could expect from Nintendo or Wii games since the Wii has such limited memory for such things.

Yay for Microsoft! A demo of a game can almost only ever be a good thing. When I'm about to spend a load of my hard-earned on some new game I'd like to know if it's any good, if it's the kind of game I'd like, and so on.

I don't know why some people still think Microsoft are "evil", they seem to care a lot more about their customers than Sony and Nintendo, who seem to prefer telling their customers what they want.

thats really good point, gft, i have played demos so bad i never gave a purchase/rental a second thought, and with the memory limitations, i think they better sit this out, its best to not roll out an inferior product just because everyone is doing it

with that being said while these kind of limitations didnt matter too much to me in the beginning since i knew i was purchasing the most (by far) inexpensive of the next gen consoles, but as the other systems keep dropping price, these limitations are becoming more glaring, i can see why folks are getting frustrated

i would only advise patience, as there is plenty of good stuff to play even with the wii's warts and all...but thats just me

This post was last modified: 03-25-2008 07:26 AM by drew102e.

I'm not sure where you've been in the past 3 years, but I'd have to disagree I think each company has a reason why they do or do not want demos, but it's all based on money, so goodness and customer love probably doesn't go into the equation.

This post was last modified: 03-25-2008 08:02 AM by gft77.

The red rings of death were a technical fault, I'm talking about Nintendo and Sony's attitude towards their customers. They're arrogant, stubborn, refuse to get with the times, and Nintendo in particular have a knack for making ridiculous arbitrary decisions (e.g. no 60 Hz for PAL VC titles, huge delays for no apparent reason, etc.).

But anyway, back on topic: demos are good. You can rent a game first, sure, or you can download a demo. The choice is yours. What could possibly be wrong with allowing this choice?

This post was last modified: 03-25-2008 08:07 AM by Napalmbrain.

I guess my point is that a demo can be so short, and it can either show you an amazing game (when it could be total crap) or it could show you a crap game (when it could actually be good). So download a demo, rent the game to get more of an experience, and if you like it, buy it.

Demos or lack or demos, doesn't mean a particular game company is bad or loves gamers...remember, it's all about making money in the long run.

I'm with gft on this one. Some demos are good and some not so good. I still like to have them though and more often than not I'll buy a game if I like the demo.

gotta agree with that, i mean sure it would be nice to have great playable demos of games prior to release, but the limitations of the system dont allow that to be an option

dont really think it make one company like gamers more...its just the right decision for that company at that point and time

the article and title of this thread is specifically for downloadable games. as far as im concerned, you cant rent downloadable games.

im all for demos. in xbla's case, theyre trials; direct snips of the actual game. you are basically downloading the entire game, but are limited to time, levels, and features. when you decide to purchase the game, it's more or less a 10 second download which unlocks the trial into a full game.

i doubt nintendo would really waste the time to do that with their VC games and it seems theyre not gonna do that with with wiiware either.